Columbian Exchange Facts – Term Paper

The Effects the Trade for New World Goods on Indigenous Relationships

The European notion that the Americas had an overflow of untapped treasures and new world goods drove the development of labor in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The new world products were inclusive of commodities that had their origin from the Americas as the only source. These goods that were only found in the Americas were the cause of movements across the Atlantic Ocean by people from Eurasia and Africa. These new world products included maize, potatoes, cinchona tree (malaria therapy), tobacco, cacao, peanuts, sunflower, animals, slaves and of course diseases such as Syphilis. The motive to acquire these products led to the development of the Columbia exchange that apart from itself requiring much labor was a means of forcefully and cheaply acquiring much needed human labor from other accessible parts of the world like Africa. The resource-angry Europeans were short of labor to carry on with their quest for amassing the new world goods and therefore granted the American natives the right to own both domestic and imported energy; a right popularly known those days as ‘encomiendas’. Bumpy rewards were in store for individuals who enabled high performances through their laborers.

Columbian Exchange Effects

Of all the good exchanged between the Americas and the other parts of the world, sugar was the most valuable, akin to the current world’s oil value. European conflicts arose in the struggle to establish and control sugar plantation in the Americas’ best sugar plantation regions. Tobacco also stood out to have great importance in this trade in the new world, where it was rather smoked a compared to the Americans’ use for medicinal and ritualistic purposes. Also of great value in the new world was cacao that was used to produce chocolate. Chocolate drinks known as ‘xocolati’ was a ceremonial beverage among the Mesoamerican Indians and was used during marriages. This use, however, did not sink well with the Spaniards who viewed it as vile and named it ‘the devil’s vomit; Apart from the crops, animals were also traded as new world goods. For instance, Christopher Columbus brought cows, pigs, horses and chicken to the Caribbean Islands on his second voyage. The new world animals also included snakes and sloths that appeared bizarre to the Europeans. (Bresnahan; Gordon, 1997)

Microbes were also unconsciously exchanged since they were small insignificant creatures with devastation effects on humans. Examples of infections that were acquired from the bacteria included smallpox, measles, and chickenpox. There was also the exchange of sexually transmitted infections (STI;s) like syphilis amongst the traders.;

The labor offered under this kind of relationship was a rather full of slavery practice and was forceful to the natives. This exploitation could be seen in the bargaining tool of the conquest rulers who exposed the laborers to Catholicism instead. Being in such an exploitative kind of a relationship the American natives opted to exploit their rights and resist the colonialist’s rule and roles in the new world trade. Instead, they inclined to their old beliefs and systems instead of the early adopting Catholicism. Others were however adapted to portions of the new belief that had some sense and appeal in them.

Effects of the Columbian Exchange

The import of forced labor from other parts of the world in the context of the Columbian exchange came with violence especially brutality from the Spanish rulers. One Dominican friar named Las Casas had previously owned Indian slaves in the Americas. After witnessing the brutality that the ‘encomenderos’ implicated on the natives he gave it up and sharply differed with other recipients of the ‘encomiendas’. Later in 1515 he started advocating for the kind regard and handling of the native laborers and slaves that led to the establishment of New Laws that were aimed at ending slavery and the ‘encomiendas’ system.(Brands, Breen, Williams, & Gross, 2016.)

Although mostly discussed, Indians were not the only forced labor victims in the Americas. Africans also were victims of forced labor to the European rulers and were utilized in the production of tobacco, sugar and other cash crops for sale in the European markets. To justify the integration of Africans into enslavement, the Europeans viewed the as non-Christians and as a consequence, were completely and brutally denied the control of their lives. Any attempt of resistance to the forced labor and slavery was met with physical, mental and sexual violence from the Europeans; as a method to assert their status as master and superior.

More involved in the trade for slave laborers across the Atlantic into the Americas were the Portuguese. The Portuguese had slave holder pens on the west coast of Africa like Ghana’s Elmina Castle, after which the captured slaves were sold to the Spanish, English, and Dutch colonial inhabitants in the Americas to assist in the production of sugar for export. In the sugarcane plantation farms, the laborers could manually harvest and process large masses of sugarcane. The labor intensive methods involved in the production of sugar and the recycling of their byproducts into molasses was very dangerous to the unprotected manual laborers. According to Las Casas, by the year 1550, there were about fifty thousand enslaved workers in the Hispaniola owners section of the Americas. He recounts that this was the largest tragedy yet in the New Atlantic World. (“New Worlds in the Americas: Labor, Commerce, and the Columbian Exchange | US History I (OS Collection)”, 2016)

Columbian Exchange Impact

Effects of Labor Trade on the Indigenous Relations

The transactions between the new world and the old world had various effects on the existing indigenous relationships. Previously before these developments there existed a deep connection to the indigenous people and their geographical territories, cultural and spiritual beliefs and aesthetical connections. Encroachment of colonial rulers and the Europeans into the Americas for New world goods could have caused an imbalance in the much-treasured coexistence of the American inhabitants. 

Spiritually, the Europeans forcefully introduced to the Americas the new practice of Catholicism against their wish to practice their belief. This new idea is viewed to have diluted the local spiritual relationships as other natives resorted to either fully adopting the new faith or adopting the practices of the new religion that suited them most.

The crops and foods that were initially viewed by the local natives as of aesthetic and therapeutic value were later abused and new uses adopted due to these interactions. An example is the use of tobacco that was initially for medicinal purposes until the Europeans made a health-deteriorating smoking habit out of it.

The import and use of forceful labor and slavery in the farms and crops plantations was against the cultural belief of the natives. This engagement and the ‘encomiendas’ system introduced a concept of brutality, slavery, violence and greed for resources by to against the unifying indigenous culture in the Americas. The regard for human rights and values were also corroded due to the occurrence of such incidences within the transaction zones. Sacred beliefs by the natives were also mutilated by the engagement of the colonial traders in sexual and psychological violence.

Columbian Exchange Significance

The export of the locally produced crops and animals also led to the loss of their aesthetic value that comes with ownership and are viewed as a value of wealth.

The import and export of labor from within the exchange led to the exchange of previously non-existent infections and diseases in both camps. The acquisition of measles, chickenpox, and smallpox are a direct consequence of the purchase of slaves used as laborers from the various parts of the world. 

The export and import activities were also of the positive effect the indigenous people. For instance, the Americas learned better ways of land use and discovered new and essential products from the old word. The new world goods were also further explored to identify better and more appropriate uses to the American inhabitants.

It evident that at the first instance, the effects associated with the trade for new world goods and labor was grave and unbearable to the indigenous people. However, the effects waned over time and a multicultural, advanced and harmonious society developed within the Americas in the long run. The world also became more open to commodities and this market the beginning of a long standing trade revolution that has generally benefited world’s economy.

References

Brands, H., Breen, T., Williams, R., & Gross, A. American Stories.

New Worlds in the Americas: Labor, Commerce, and the Columbian Exchange | US History I (OS Collection). (2016). Courses.lumenlearning.com. Retrieved 22 October 2016, from https://courses.lumenlearning.com/ushistory1os2xmaster/chapter/new-worlds-in-the-americas-labor-commerce-and-the-columbian-exchange/

Bresnahan, T. & Gordon, R. (1997).The economics of new goods. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.